Flutes and monks

Friday 19^th February

There’s a wonderful outfit called “Backstreet Academy” that we've come across in SE Asia in the last couple of years. It puts falang (foreign visitors) who want to learn traditional crafts such as weaving, fishing or basket-making in touch with local traditional craftsmen and women. The visitors get to learn from makers in their own homes and to find out more about their lives and culture. The makers get a modest fee.

Trevann and I signed up to do flute-making with Backstreet Academy this week. We were taken along by our young translator Tuo to the home of Xiengxoing, 63-year-old Hmong master craftsman, instrument maker and musician, for an afternoon of instruction using sharp knives and bamboo. We chatted while we whittled and came away with two fine-sounding flutes and an increased knowledge and appreciation of the past and present lives of Hmong hill tribe families settled in town.

Xengxoing (Song-Vaa) gave us a tune on the kheng (kane), a reeded 6-piped instrument primarily used for traditional Hmong funerals.

The bamboo flute was apparently used by young Hmong men to communicate their love when courting.

Song-Vaa checks the two bamboo sticks we're to use for our flutes.

The knives were very sharp but wrapped in towels apart from the tip.

The family's cooking fire was used to heat a metal rod to make the finger holes.

A thin pliable strip of special bark, a bit like birch but copper-coloured, was wound round the mouthpiece end.

And glued in place using "traditional Hmong" superglue!

What a great idea - Backstreet Academy. Check it out if you're in Laos, Cambodia or Nepal.

Today I managed for the first time to get up out of bed early enough to witness the tak bak – alms giving ceremony – for which Luang Prabang is famed.